New Memorial training center to simulate emergencies with real ambulance

Wednesday

May 14, 2014 at 10:15 PM

By Dean OlsenStaff Writer

Not many hospitals have gone to the trouble of hoisting a 6,000-pound section of a real ambulance 75 feet into the air so it could be installed on the third floor of a new medical simulation and training center.

But for Memorial Medical Center and its parent organization, the feat — accomplished Wednesday with the help of a crane provided by Harold O’Shea Builders — was part of a coordinated effort to expand and improve the Springfield hospital’s training of health-care workers.

“We want to upskill them to their highest ability,” said Aimee Allbritton, chief learning officer for Memorial Health System. “The idea is to create an environment that fosters that culture of continuous improvement. The whole intent is to improve patient outcomes.”

The ambulance will be part of a 7,800-square-foot simulation center inside the $35.9 million Memorial Center for Learning and Innovation, scheduled to open in January on the southwest corner of Memorial’s campus.

“Financially, it’s a significant commitment for our organization,” said Allbritton, vice president for organizational development for the health system, which operates Memorial Medical Center, hospitals in Taylorville and Lincoln, a physician practice, mental health subsidiary and home health-care affiliate.

The center will result in the hiring of about 25 new employees at Memorial Health System, which employs about 6,700 people in central Illinois, Albritton said. Memorial Medical Centers employs 4,220 people.

Albritton and Drew Early, Memorial Medical Center’s administrator of cardiovascular and emergency services, said the expense will pay dividends in terms of reducing medical errors, improving retention of employees and providing deeper and broader levels of training to future and current doctors, nurses and emergency medical service workers.

“This is directly linked to our ability to take care of patients,” Early said.

Allbritton said Memorial will be able to charge fees to some groups using the center and host more regional conferences, offsetting some of center’s expenses.

The 72,000-square-foot building, connected to the main hospital by an overhead, enclosed walkway over East Miller Street, is part of Memorial’s $152 million campus renovation, which will be completed in early 2016.

Memorial officials originally planned for a three-story building but later opted to add a fourth floor — which boosted the total cost by $8 million and square footage by 15,000. The decision was made so space and equipment could be added for training on how to assist patients in outpatient settings, Allbritton said.

For example, an area on the third floor will be built to resemble the outside and inside of a home. Full-time and volunteer EMS workers will be able to use those areas to work through scenarios and be taped as they respond to mock emergencies such as heart attacks and falls, Allbritton said.

The ambulance lifted onto the third floor is a little-used 1992 model that closely resembles more modern models. Memorial was able to get it at a bargain price, Early said.

The ambulance will allow for a variety of simulations, involving everything from an emergency on a lonely highway to a jostling ride back to the hospital.

Providing those experiences in a physically and psychologically safe environment to hundreds of EMS providers in Sangamon and surrounding counties will benefit patients in the long run, Early said.

Thousands of employees of the health system will be able to use the center each year. The building also will be used for students and medical residents from Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, as well as people training to be nurses, paramedics and other health care providers, Allbritton said.

Some areas of the center are set aside for continuing medical education for experienced doctors. This will be a new option in the community for physicians, Allbritton said.

SIU’s surgical-skills lab, currently housed at Memorial, will triple in size when it moves to the fourth floor of the new center, she said.

And the center, which will consolidate training now going on at several parts of Memorial’s campus, will include $6 million in innovate, new technology, she said.

Debriefing sessions, during which participants will be able to analyze video of the way they reacted to scenarios, will provide just as much learning as the actual simulation exercises, Allbritton said.

The center’s first floor will include a large conference center, business center and cafe.

The second floor will feature a variety of classrooms and “collaboration areas.”

The third floor, with its simulation areas, will include video-control rooms, mock inpatient rooms, outpatient exam rooms, the ambulance and a mock home with a kitchen, bathroom, living room and bedroom.

In addition to SIU’s surgical-skills lab, the fourth floor will house the Midwest Healthcare Quality Alliance. The alliance is a partnership of the health system and SIU HealthCare.

SIU’s professional development laboratory and Memorial’s medical library also will be on the fourth floor.

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